Ive taken a former friend to small claims claims court, judgement given my way

[EDCBA1]

Ive taken a former friend to the small claims court over £500 that they refused to pay after 4 years ... anyway he didnt reply so the judgement has gone my way.

Now he obviously wont pay it so i seem to have a couple of choices in getting the bailiffs in or seeking for an order against his salary.

Problem with the first is i know he drives an old car thats probably just worth £500, he rents a house and as all i know the car could be in his wifes name.

But he is a partner in a business that has tens of thousands of pounds in assets, including cars.

Would a judge take this into account should he continue to refuse to pay ... or as its a ltd company will it be an irrelevance?

Thanks to anyone who can assist.
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[Amethyst]

The company's assets etc are irrelevant as you expected. The judgment ( by default ) is against your ex friend as an individual thus could only be enforced against them as an individual

Do you know if he received the claim ?

[EDCBA1]

The company's assets etc are irrelevant as you expected. The judgment ( by default ) is against your ex friend as an individual thus could only be enforced against them as an individual

Do you know if he received the claim ?

Cheers for the reply.

I can only presume so it went to his address.

If i went down the route of seeking to get the funds from his employer out of his wages.... a company he owns 50% of, what would be the outcome if they ignored this?

Seems as if all he has to do is ignore everything then he gets away with it ...

One other thing ive a copy of the form EX321 and it states

"If the amount you are owed is equal to or more than £750, you can also apply to make the defendant bankrupt. However, this can be expensive. You can get more information about bankruptcy procedures from www.gov.uk"

Is the £750 still correct or has it now gone up?

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[ploddertom]

If it is over £600 and not a CCA regulated debt then you could transfer the Judgment up to the High Court and get a High Court Enforcement Agent to visit him. Obviously there is a chance he is well versed in avoiding paying debts and you also have to remember that just because you have Judgment against someone there is no guarantee you will ever get paid.

I gather from what you say above he is an employee of the Ltd Co he part owns, an Attachment of Earnings is possible but again if he resigns or more likely produces proof he earns very little then there is nothing you can do. You could serve him with an Order to attend Court for questioning as to why he has not paid - if he hails to attend then he could be arrested for Contempt.

Sorry know nothing about Bankruptcy.

[des8]

To petition for someone else's bankruptcy you need to be owed minimum £5000 and it will cost over £1200 in court fees!**

[luxardo]

It really depends how far you want to take this. You are already 600 quid down with the debt and fees.
Taking it to the high court will cost another 256 and if all he has is a 500 quid car the bailiff*would be loathe to take it as it won't even cover his costs of removal after sale at auction.
It might annoy his wife,*a bailiff turning up and she may shame him into paying up, wives*do get very annoyed when bailiffs arrive, especially if she lets them in.
Or go for an attachment of earnings order, at least you will get something back even if only a fiver a week. On the plus side he now has a CCJ so you've screwed up his credit rating for the next 6 years. Also CCJs don't have a time limit, he may win the lotto next week or come into some money.

[ploddertom]

Taking it to the high court will cost another 256

Totally incorrect, Transfer Up fee is £66.

[luxardo]

The fee yes but I was assuming he would be using a bailiff in which case the total fees would be 256 including their first visit after obtaining writ

[ploddertom]

The fee yes but I was assuming he would be using a bailiff in which case the total fees would be 256 including their first visit after obtaining writ

Sorry but you are totally incorrect. They pay the fee but it does not cost extra after that, the defendant pays all fees & charges. The only exception being if the visit is abortive because of no funds or goods or that they are unable to speak to the debtor - fee for this is £90 inc VAT no matter how many visits were made.

[luxardo]

The 66 quid just gets you a warrant of control. You still need to pay the compliance fee which is 75 plus VAT or 90 quid. Then when you instruct a bailiff they are going to want something in advance from you in case they can't recover anything, probably 100 quid. 66 + 90 + 100 = 256.
I very much doubt after hearing the full facts of this case any enforcement company will take it on without an advance as payment seems unlikely and they won't want to waste their time.
If they do succeed they will refund the 100 quid advance and pocket their usual enforcement fees.
I see what you mean by the defendant paying in the end though so you are correct if it all goes to plan.

[ploddertom]

The 66 quid just gets you a warrant of control. You still need to pay the compliance fee which is 75 plus VAT or 90 quid. Then when you instruct a bailiff they are going to want something in advance from you in case they can't recover anything, probably 100 quid. 66 + 90 + 100 = 256.
I very much doubt after hearing the full facts of this case any enforcement company will take it on without an advance as payment seems unlikely and they won't want to waste their time.
If they do succeed they will refund the 100 quid advance and pocket their usual enforcement fees.
I see what you mean by the defendant paying in the end though so you are correct if it all goes to plan.

You really need to understand this process before making wildly inaccurate comments that are plainly wrong.

[luxardo]

The 100 quid up front is not part of the legal process I admit, but you still have to pay the 66 and the 75 plus VAT before enforcement can commence which is 156 quid. (OK you get the 75 back from the debtor but you still have to pay it first.).
Which part of this is wrong ? You can't just shell out 66 quid and have a high court enforcement officer turn up at a debtor's house like a genie from a bottle as you claim.

[ploddertom]

The 100 quid up front is not part of the legal process I admit, but you still have to pay the 66 and the 75 plus VAT before enforcement can commence which is 156 quid. (OK you get the 75 back from the debtor but you still have to pay it first.).
Which part of this is wrong ? You can't just shell out 66 quid and have a high court enforcement officer turn up at a debtor's house like a genie from a bottle as you claim.

You pay to transfer up - £66 - and that is it. Don't know where you have got your information from but it is plainly flawed and inaccurate. I think having done this for many years I know what I am talking about.

[luxardo]

This is an extract from the website of a well known enforcement agency.

Payment – Compliance fee £75 –Our administration fees are usually paid by the debtor on successful recovery. Where we are unable to recover the amount due, and this could be for a variety of reasons, you will be charged £75.00 plus VAT. These reasons include but are not limited to, situations where we are unable to trace the debtor, where the debtor successfully applies to have the judgment set aside, where the debtor is or has been declared bankrupt and where there are insufficient assets to cover the debt owed.

You may have been applying for warrants for many years but you clearly have not been enforcing them. No enforcement agent would take this case up knowing the circumstances without his fees being covered as it has a very low chance of recovery.

I repeat my earlier claim IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE he will end paying 66 + 90 + probably another 100 = 256 if the agent acts and does not recover anything.
I totally agree with you that the fee is only 66 quid in normal circumstances where recovery is likely.

[EDCBA1]

Ive been sent several forms from the people at money claims.

EX321 -*I have a judgment but the defendant hasn’t paid What do I do?

Which then refers me to EX322 (Warrant of control How do I ask for a warrant of control?)

This tells me id need to fill in EX323 to apply for the warrant.

Form EX50 informs me the fee is £77.*

Warrants – fees order 8.1-8.2 and 8.6 • To issue a warrant of control (recovery of a sum of money) via Money Claims Online or County Court Business Centre. £77

However im in the position where i think it may be best to go straight to his company, i doubt his business partner wants this s h i t, coming to his business for what is a small amount of money, that any decent person would have returned long long ago.

As these people are rather silly in that they have a Facebook account, with many of their wealthier clients on there. If needs must i can contact them showing they type of person they're dealing with.

But back to square one again, a judge will have heard a 1000 times of people pleading poverty ... will he instruct some for of payment ... ie £10 a week. As its quite hard for him to claim poverty when his business has 10s of thousands of pounds in assets, as noted at companies house on their accounts.